Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

*Update: GAAHHHHH. I can’t figure out how to make blogspot let me indent. Boo! You’re stuck with the unpretty list below til we can figure it out. :(*

I’ll be entreating Rhys to add these to the website somewhere, but until then, you lovely blog readers can see it first. ^_^

1. I’m sorry, what are you doing again?
a. Putting the rest of our life on hold to follow a lifelong dream to check out the world.

2. For how long? A month?
a. We have no set itinerary, thus we have no set dates of return. However, we are hoping to be travelling for 1-2 years.

3. I thought you were gone, but I saw you the other day. Are you still going on your trip?
a. Yep. We quit our jobs April 3rd, leave on our roadtrip to CA with some friends shortly thereafter, and our freighter ship leaves on April 26th. Unless they decide to change the departure date, which is a common occurrence with cargo ships, but it will be in that ballpark.

4. How on earth are you affording that? – or – How can I do that too?
a. Step 1: Live like a pauper and have no bills. First, we sold just about everything we have in an estate sale here, which allowed us to wipe out our credit card debt. Then we managed to get some awesome renters in our home to cover the mortgage payments. Finally we have been staying with the ‘rents for a while now (thank you!) to save up money .
b. Step 2: You still won’t be able to stay in the Hilton. Like, ever. We still won’t have a lot of dough, but we’ll make it work by camping, using sites like http://www.hospitalityclub.org, and hostels when we need to.

5. I really like your blog and am looking forward to your pictures and stories of far-off places, and it’s cool that you’re taking the time to take us all along, figuratively. How can I help?
a. OMG, that’s awesome! Ok, this isn’t a frequently asked question, but it has been asked once or twice and that’s neat! There is a PayPal link on the main page under “Preparations” if you would like to support us. ^_^

6. How will you be able to blog/post pictures while you’re away?
a. The blog and the Flickr page (both link to each other) will be the primary things being updated on our journey. Updates will be sporadic, but should be interesting hopefully! As for journaling, I will be doing most of that on paper (how archaic, I know!) until I hit the next internet café. Rhys, the primary photographer, will have the SD card capacity to hold 2500 pictures – which SHOULD certainly carry us over to the next internet café as well!

7. Can you pack me in your luggage? I wanna go!
a. Well, it would be a tight fit. We’re only taking a NorthFace Skareb 50L backpack each, packed with necessities, a few changes of clothing, a daypack, etc.

8. Do you want to know my advice?
a. Always. We’re no experts. Unless it’s “Don’t do it at all,” and then we’re just going to smile and nod.

9. So, where will you be in X Month, X Year, or how long will you stay in X country?
a. We don’t know. The only part of our itinerary that is strict is the initial leg – we know we’ll have about two weeks to mosey on out to California and hop our freighter. Then the freighter will take about two weeks to sail to Auckland, New Zealand. At that point, we know the NZ auto-visa for a US passport gives us 90 days to stay within the country. So you can bet that sometime within that 90 days we will move on. It doesn’t get much stricter than that going forward.

10. Where will you go?
a. We kinda, sorta know. Though we don’t have dates to our travel, we do have a pretty good idea on where we think we’ll go. It looks something like this, expressed in World of Warcraft human levels:
i. Levels 1-10: Elwynn. Freighter and New Zealand.
ii. Levels 10-20: Westfall, Redridge. Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand.
iii. Levels 20-30: Darkshire. Laos, Cambodia.
iv. Levels 30-40: Stranglethorn Vale. Other SE Asian countries? Perhaps. Moving up through China as well.
v. The Deeprun Tram. Trans-Siberian Railway from Beijing to Moscow.
vi. Levels 40-50: Instancing and Tanaris. Wow, that analogy breaks down, right? Russia and the Lapland countries (Finland, Sweden, Norway) are about as far from hot desert as you can get.
vii. Levels 50-60: EPL & WPL. Not meant as a swipe against some gorgeous countries – Britain, Ireland, Scotland, France. Denmark.
viii. Levels 60-70: Outland. Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Lichtenstein. Switzerland, etc.
ix. Levels 70-80: Northrend. Again, failed analogy, not particularly frigid or Northern, but you get the idea. Turkey, Italy, Greece, Morocco, Egypt, Israel.
x. Further expansions? Not yet announced by Blizzard – and not yet known by us. Please note, this is not an absolute list – it’s possible we won’t visit all these places, and it’s possible we’ll visit some that aren’t on here.

11. You lived in Japan for a year, don’t you want to visit?
a. Yes, heart-achingly so. But it is EXPENSIVE, and there aren’t a lot of cheap ways to get there and stay there for any length of time. We’ll just have to wait and see, and so will you. ☺

12. What all are you taking with you? Specifically?
a. I think I’ll ask Rhys to add a “Gear” section on the site, so we can just post what all we are taking. We’ll be glad to let you know if we love or hate something, trust us!

13. OMG. No World of Warcraft for up to TWO. YEARS?!
a. I know. Don’t think I don’t know. I’m going to miss playing, and most of all going to miss my guild – Wombat Wevolution on the Kirin Tor server. They are tops!

14. The Danger Question – or – Isn’t it dangerous to visit X country?
a. Yes, some countries are dangerous, probably, we don’t know other than news reports (which can be exaggerated) and government warnings (which we do follow, but can also be strange sometimes). To those people who have recommended, with our best interests in mind, that we not take this journey – here is our response:
b. Thank you for your concern… Bad things appear to happen all across the globe, but they happen here too, and sometimes in greater numbers. We can’t choose to live our lives paralyzed by fear of something that may or may not happen; we will take all of the precautions necessary for ourselves, but we will not automatically suspect everyone. We believe in self-fulfilling prophecies and that the majority of people are well-intentioned. We will listen to our instincts though, and if something doesn’t feel right, we’ll be on guard. That’s the best we can offer you – and we’ll check in as often as we can on our blog so that you know we are safe.

Once we have a page for this, I’m sure we’ll expand it as we hear other questions being asked pretty often in our conversations. ☺